You are wrong in your assertion about subsidies for the boomer generation. It is the greatest generation that has received the free ride. Their benefits are vastly out of proportion to the taxes paid. The boomers have unwisely not stopped this Ponzi scheme. We should have demanded means testing of the greatest generation and privatization. Even if there are no benefit cuts, the boomer generation will receive low and negative returns from Social Security benefits.
There is no avoidance of pain on entitlement reform. The baby boom generation (and succeeding generations) have paid enormous taxes to support entitlement Ponzi schemes. The boomers will get substantial benefit cuts. I prefer direct benefit cuts with some degree of choice. I would prefer to fore-go all Social Security benefits with a significant reduction in payroll taxes now (essentially privatization). The dims will not permit this solution. The dims want a massive tax increase instead.
I agree with most of what you’ve said, except for this
“We should have demanded means testing...”
Means testing would clearly make the program entirely welfare rather than a contribution-based program. It is bad enough that the benefits are skewed toward low-income (and hence low-contribution) workers.
The same is true of lifting the cap on wages subject to SS taxes. It just makes the “return” worse for the high-wage earners.
I think the Treasury should bite the bullet and sell $2T of new 10-year and 30-year Bonds, preferably with a tax-free status, and use the proceeds to pay off the IOUs in the SSTF. Then let the SSTF be managed like any pension fund, investing in the markets worldwide. Together with changing the benefits index from AWI to CPI, the unfunded liability of SS would be closed.